Bala Chandra shocks Drazic

Hyderabad: Overnight sole leader Grandmaster S P Sethuraman maintained his sole lead with six points after signing the peace treaty with top seed Ivan Popov in the seventh round of the ongoing 2nd Hyderabad International Grandmasters Chess Tournament here at Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy Indoor Stadium, Yousufguda on Saturday.

Top board encounter between Sethu and his Russian Grandmaster rival produced some exciting moments are both players are tried to seize the advantage in the middle game but agreed to sign the peace treaty after 63 moves in a Sicilian Defence game.

Third seed Vidit Santosh Gujarathi and Russian International Master Mikhail Mozharov are now at joined second spot with five and half points after registering emphatic victories in the seventh round. Playing with white pieces in a Modern Benoni game, Vidit defeated second seed Georgian Grandmaster Levan Pantsulaia in 40 moves while Mozharov got better off Grandmaster Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia in 34 moves arrived out Taimanov variation of Sicilian Defence.

Continuing his giant killing act, Andhra youngster Dhulipala Chandra Prasad shocked Serbian Grandmaster Sinisa Drazic in 45 moves in a Colle System game. So far he has beaten two Grandmasters, two International Masters and drew with two Grandmasters and one International Master to keep his unbeaten run.

Earlier the seventh round proceedings are inaugurated by Shri. Chandra Sekhar and Shri. Hanumantha Rao, General Managers Andhra Bank in presence of Shri. Kanna Reddy, Secretary Andhra Pradesh Chess Association, Shri. Ramalakshmaiah, Major Shiva Prasad, Vice Presidents APCA and International Master Lanka Ravi, Organising Secretary.

The last double round day in this tournament sponsored by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd, Mahindra Ecole Centrale, Andhra Bank, Petronet LNG Ltd and Airports Authority of India category will be played on Sunday and eighth round matches commence at 1000 hrs IST.

Meanwhile in the Category B event, 6 players which include third seed V Varun of Andhra Pradesh are now sharing the lead with four and half points after the end of fifth round matches.

In the fifth round, Varun beat overnight sole leader Naveen S Hegde while Sammed Jaykumar Shete of Maharashtra defeated Abhishek A of Kerala and Vishwanath Prasad of Andhra Pradesh got better off Baivab Mishra of Orissa to be among the leaders. Other leaders are Tamilnadu trio Surbamaniam S C, Hemanth Raam and Y Saranya as they defeated Barath Kalyan, Rathanvel and Anurag Jaiswal respectively in the fifth round encounters.

Sixth round matches of this ten round Swiss system with a prize fund of Rs. 5 lakh in progress at the time of report.

Results: Category ‘A’ (Round-7) (Indian’s otherwise specified): GM Ivan Popov of RUS (5.5) drew with GM Sethuraman S P (6); GM Vidit Santosh Gujarathi (5.5) beat GM Levan Pantsulaia of GEO (5); GM Tornike Sanikidze of GEO (5) drew with GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan of ARM (5); GM Vladislav Borovikov of UKR (5) drew with GM Vasily Papin of RUS (5); IM Mozharov Mihail of RUS (5.5) beat GM Merab Gagunashvili of GEO (4.5); GM Arun Prasad (4.5) drew with GM Valeriy Neverov of UKR (5); IM Shardul Gagare (4) lost to GM Lalith Bau M R (5); IM Rajesh VAV of TN (4.5) drew with GM Alon Greenfeld of ISR (4.5); IM Swayams Mishra (4) lost to GM Azer Mirzoev of AZE (5); GM Levon Babujian of ARM (4.5) drew with IM Shyam Nikil P (4.5); GM Hovik Hayrapetyan of ARM (4.5) drew with IM Ramnath Bhuvanesh (4.5); GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (5) beat FM Tigran Petrosyan of ARM (4); Dhulipala Bala Chandra Prasad (5) beat GM Sinisa Drazic of SRB (4); IM Karthikeyan P (4.5) drew with IM Thejkumar MS (4.5); IM Jacek Stopa of POL (4.5) beat IM P Konguvel (4).